Addolorata cemetery needs a weeding

Over the past few weeks, visitors to Santa Maria Addolorata cemetery, Paola, may have been dismayed to see some parts of the cemetery, particularly the newer areas, unkempt and littered.

These pictures, taken last week, show bushes of weeds, some up to a metre high, growing all over the place - through the ground, from beneath the graves, and even in between some very expensive marble gravestones. Mounds of rubble and rubbish are also piling up in a corner of this area.

Last Sunday, Easter Sunday, bins were overflowing with rubbish, empty candle holders and flower wrappers lay on the ground, reflecting the sunlight.

But a spokesman for the Health Inspectorate, which is responsible for the cemetery, has assured The Sunday Times that the situation should improve soon.

"All efforts are made to keep the cemetery tidy," principal health inspector Sandro Sammut said on Friday. "Two manned trucks are daily being deployed to collect refuse bins and other waste. Regretfully the public occasionally dump their unwanted refuse (dried flowers, candle holders and wrappers) at the first available corner. Especially after the weekend, the bins all around the cemetery are full and it takes days to recuperate."

Mr Sammut said weeding was also under way: "Due to the heavy and incessant rainfall, coupled with the warmth of the sun, the weeds flourished more than usual. However, weeding is in hand, so much so that half of the cemetery has already been cleared."